Perfect Combos – Long time no sea

Hello Everyone,

It is Zsofi here, welcome to another edition of my Perfect Combos series. Here in Hungary we have a super hot summer so when we cannot spend the day at our favourite lake, I enjoy crafting sea-themed cards to cool me down. On this cutie I used the Little Shellfish stamp set wih a couple of scene building dies to get a fun background. Let me lead you through the process.

First I have stamped the images on alcohol friendly cardstock and used Spectrum Noir Illustrator markers to colour them. The colours I used: lobster: DR5, DR3, DR1, PP4, houses & pinwheel: TB5, TB3, TB2, IB2, IB1, BG4, BG2, BG1. I used the coordinating dies to cut them all out.

To set the scene I die cut a Stitched Rectangle die 3 times from white cardstock, and also from Oyster Shell and Simply Teal-licious cardstocks. Then I used the Silver Lining Cloud border dies to make the sky from a white rectangle, and the Breaking Waves Border dies to cut the sand and sea waves. The other 2 white rectangles I used to give instant dimension to my scene by layering them behind the die cuts. I love this little trick, instead of using foam tape and it is perfect for using up some scraps/recycled white packaging.

I used Distress Oxide inks to add some shading and texture to the sand and waves: Hickory Smoke, Black Soot, Peacock Feathers and some white acrylic paint. While the splatters were drying I made my card base: I used the Broad Brushstrokes stencil with Salty Ocean and Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide inks on a white note card. With mixing the two colours I got the same shade as on the houses, so cool!

After assembling the background I adhered the houses with Glubert and popped up the little lobster with 3D foam squares. I added a dark red mat to it to make it stand out even more. The sentiment I white heat embossed on a thin strip of black cardstock and stamped an extra on the waves from the Close at heart stamp set. They match so well, don’t you think? As a finishing touch I used glossy accents on the life savers and door knobs.

I hope you enjoyed today’s Perfect Combo and will check back later for more inspiration. If you like my cards, please make sure to follow me on Instagram where I share my happy creations! Thank you!

See you soon,

Zsofi